Anthelia and xenia colonies melting???

[Mudzie]

Both of these colonies seem to be melting away in my 75 gal mixed reef tank everything else seems fine. Started dosing lime into top off water about a month ago.swicthed to leds about three months ago. I have sold or traded a lot from these over the last two years.. I just dont get it.

[Mudzie]

All other parameters are fine
Spec grav 1.025
Alk 10-11
Calc 460
Mag 1480
Temp 78-80
Ph.. Still a little low 7.8 -8.2

[melosu58]

I would almost think it was the two changes that happened over the last month. You might want to check to see if you even need the lime.

[Mudzie]

Yea, was trying to get away from the more expensive buffers, but the seachem reefbuilder in top off water was really working good and advantage calcium a couple times a week....
Probably should go back to that????

[kay-bee19]

I also experienced a mysterious anthelia (waving hand coral) meltdown in my tank earlier this year which occurred seemingly overnight and without known reason.

Anthelia had been thriving and growing very invasive-like in my tank since 2006. One day about 7 or 8 months ago the entire colony tank-wide took a big dive. The only subtle warning I had was that the day prior the tank water was emitting a 'coral' smell (something it's never done before but everything looked fine in the tank so I didn't think anything of it). The next day essentially the entire anthelia colony was disintegrated and dissolving.

There had been no changes in my tank husbandry so I not sure what caused this.

The widespread colony was reduced to a tiny fragment group comprised of 4 or 5 polyps growing on the side of the glass.

Since then this coral has been making a slow comeback and is growing in small patches in various places in the tank.

Interestingly, I also have a huge pulsating xenia colony in the tank. The xenia (despite being a close relative of anthelia) was completely unaffected by this anthelia-meltdown incident.

[Mudzie]

That is interesting... The couple of change i have made recently may not have had anything to do with this issue, but am still stopping lime and going back to seachem products that really have been working fine for the last few years..
Thanks for the info...

[bavass]

I call it luck! I wish I had never added them to my tank and have asked for a Dremel set to grind them off my live rock, lol!

How clean is your water? If the water is too clean they will die.

[CorallineAlgae]

Originally Posted by bavass

How clean is your water? If the water is too clean they will die.

Very very true. Great point. I always run soft coral tanks with minimum skimming and polishing just to keep the softies healthy. They grow fast enough to actually work to reduce nutrients on their own. Without the nutrients they just bomb out.